In the media

A new study highlights the expansion of a commercial ecosystem offering “academic misconduct appeal assistance” through social media platforms. Researchers found that these services target students at moments of maximum anxiety. The model has evolved from informal help to a platform-driven business that operates similarly to contract cheating services. Academic integrity is slowly turning into a purchasable good. The authors warn that the phenomenon reflects a growing misalignment between institutional communication strategies and student behaviour.

Global research retractions surpassed 10,000 in 2023, with Ethiopia showing an alarming 12% + rate. This challenges research integrity and public trust. Issues include misconduct, weak oversight, and publication pressure. Strengthening ethical standards, implementing transparent review processes, establishing national monitoring bodies, and prioritizing research quality over quantity are crucial for a credible scientific environment.

Over 14,000 academic papers were retracted from English language journals in 2023, with three-quarters of which involved a Chinese co-author. As a result, the Chinese Ministry of Education is currently auditing the retracted research to determine how far academic fraud is widespread. The main issue stems from the fact that it is easy to pay for research to be written by ghostwriters and published in low-quality journals in China. Analysts argue that the political nature of research in China contributes to issues of academic integrity, as it prioritizes the quantity of published papers over their quality.

A recent Institute for East European Studies study highlights the significant threat hijacked journals pose to scientific integrity. The research reveals that papers in these journals exhibit extremely high levels of plagiarism, with 66% of the sample containing plagiarized content. Most of these papers come from authors in developing countries, suggesting that weaker ethical norms and research practices contribute to the problem.

China's Ministry of Science and Technology has released new guidelines on the use of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in scientific research to enhance scientific integrity and reduce misconduct. The rules ban the direct use of generative AI tools for research funding applications, requiring clear labelling of AI-generated content. The guidelines address challenges arising from rapid AI development, emphasizing responsible research conduct.

The comprehensive database of academic journals, newspapers, and research papers, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), has lost a legal battle over copyright infringement after a retired professor of economic history accused it of uploading more than 160 of his articles without permission or payment. Beijing Intellectual Property Court has forced the academic platform to remove his papers, pay him more than CNY700,000 (US$110,000) in compensation.

There has been an increasing number of cases of academic dishonesty among senior scientists in China. A 2018 report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences states that there were 64 cases of academic dishonesty between 2007 and 2017. At least 10 scientists were charged in 2016. These incidents occurred at 46 universities and one national research institute.

The Hunan University of Technology in central China introduced a new free tool to limit plagiarism on campuses. Students could check their final dissertation with an online database to see how much of each paper’s content is copied from existing publications. A former director of the People’s Liberation Army’s Institute for Disease Control and Prevention plagiarised the work of another Ph.D. student in his final thesis. He was stripped of his doctorate after being found guilty of cheating 12 years after receiving.

Universities in China and elsewhere in Asia are belatedly joining global alliances to promote ethical practices in artificial intelligence or AI, which were previously being studied in university research centres in a fragmented way. Crucially there are still no international guidelines and standards in place for ethical research, design and use of AI and automated systems. China’s universities in particular are turning out a large number of researchers specialising in AI who are now opting to stay in the country to work for home-grown technology giants such as Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu – companies which gather and use huge amounts of consumer data with few legal limits.

The authors who accused a website of selling their dissertations against their consent cannot demand the removal of the thesis from the platform as the sale does not constitute copyright infringement, intellectual property experts said. Many of the graduates, who said their dissertations are being sold without consent, added that the website is infringing their intellectual property rights and causing psychological and economic damages. However, unless the authors can prove that these copies are pirated, they cannot demand the shop owners to stop selling the copies.